Little Apples, Small Yard
by cess525
Summary: Jack O'Neill had hoped having kids with his wife, Samantha Carter, meant they were more like her than him.
1. Little Apples, Small Yard

It's been a while but my muse is back...YAY! I think:p.

Thank you to Jann for pushing me to hand this to Wendy. Thanks to the awesome Wendy for picking up her Beta had again for me:D Huggles

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><p>"I don't think so," was all Sam could say.<p>

"Oh, come on, Sam. You have to see it." Daniel continued.

"Daniel, she is a normal 3-year old child." Sam said as she picked up the toys laying on the ground in the living room.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Sam." Sam rolled her eyes as Daniel started again. "I don't know many 3-year olds, but I am pretty sure most can't count, read, and write."

"You would be surprised, Daniel."

"Sam, I told you if you are going to fix things then you can't leave your tools around. This isn't the lab." Jack called out from the kitchen.

"I haven't been fixing anything." Sam replied, amused. She paused before she continued to shout back to Jack, "My tools should still be in the basement."

"Care to explain this." Jack came out of the kitchen, waving her the container of assorted Phillips head and flat-head bits.

Just then the sound of little feet came running through the house. "Daddy!" Jack looked at the girl running towards him and placed the bits on the stool, opening his arms out for a hug. "You found them!" The little girl ran towards the stool and grabbed them before giving Jack a peck on the cheek and running off towards her room again.

Jack looked back over at Sam in shock. Sam shrugged her shoulders in response before running off after their oldest child.

"You know, Jacob warned me about this." Jack mused as he followed Sam down the hall. Daniel shook his head and went to see what 'mini Sam' was up to; because, if the stories about Sam's childhood were true, this had to be good.


	2. The O'Neill family crib

Twist my arm and talk me into it; I wrote more :p.

Thanks to all that reviewed to the last chapter. The bunnies went wild with the reviews and come up with more…3 more. One is being posted below.

I should note that the 3 ideas do play off of stories from my childhood. So if you think it's not possible I can assure you IT IS :p

Oh and I don't own anything except for the bunnies and memories in my head.

Again a big thanks to Wendy for being Beta extraordinaire…how she puts up with me I shall never know but she is awesome!

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><p>They had had a big discussion on the crib. With Aubrey, Sam had tossed and turned over which crib for months. While pregnant with their second child, Aubrey was too young to be moved out of her crib at eighteen months- there would be no way, they needed another crib.<p>

Jack made a strong pull for the old O'Neill crib that even Sara wouldn't let him use with Charlie; she didn't like the stain color. Sam, on the other hand, didn't like the fact that it was old. Jack had told her that everything was to code- the bars were strong and were only 2 inches apart as opposed to the 2 3/8 that was regulation. The bed was strong and sturdy and had survived baby Jack O'Neill, and it held a sentimental value to him since Gramps O'Neill had made it for his parents before Jack was even born.  
>In the end, after Sam checked the crib out for the millionth time, she relented and let Jack have his crib. Everything was just as Jack said, strong and sturdy and to modern specs.<p>

Fast forward to just after James' second birthday, and Jack was shocked to see little eyes peering over the edge of their bed one morning.

"Sam?" Jack asked while nudging her on the shoulder.

"Hmmmm." Sam replied.

"James is up."

"It's your turn," the muffled voice said as she cuddled further into the blankets.

"No, I mean he's out of his bed."

"Hmmmm?"

"Sam, he got out of his crib and he is staring at us right now." Just then a giggle escaped from the little boy at the foot of the bed.

"James!" Sam said in shock, finally waking up. "Little man, what are you doing out of bed?" He giggled again as he tried to climb up on the bed. Jack reached to the foot of the bed and pulled the little boy up. "Guess we need to get the crib net out again." Sam commented.

James quickly crawled over to his mother, and Sam scooped him up and gave him a big hug and, unfortunately, she took a big wiff.

"Oh boy, little man, you are stinky."

"I've got him." Jack said as he picked up James and walked toward the little boy's room. "Sam, I think we need more than a crib tent." Jack called from the hallway.

Sam jumped out of bed and joined Jack in the hall to see the sturdy O'Neill family crib in shambles. "Holy Hannah," Sam gasped.

"Little man, what did you do?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Book!" the toddler said, excitedly, pointing to the book at the corner of the crib.

"Book," Jack parroted as he walked over and picked up the book. Looking at the board book and then handing it to his son, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh my. Book!" Sam said, also excited, from the doorway. She walked toward the little boy and took the book from his hands. Jack raised a quizzical eyebrow. Sam looked Jack in the eye, "Book!"

"Ummm, Sam?"

"He used the book, Jack." Jack watched as Sam walked the book over to the Old O'Neill 'sturdy crib' and used one of the board book pages to twist the screw.

"Are you sure?" Jack said, doubtfully.

"It fits, Jack." Sam said as she went over and picked up James from Jack's hands. "Good job, little man! Now, let's change that stinky diaper."

Jack stood there in shock, "Great, really outnumbered and she's encouraging them."


	3. Master Inventor

General Jack O'Neill walked into the door to his house and immediately knew something was off.

With stealth, he checked the living-room, readjusting the afghan Teal'c got him last Christmas-Star Wars themed-and clicked off the lamp in the corner.

Slowly he moved into the dining area, dropping his keys and brief case by the table in the corner.

Moving toward the kitchen, he grabbed for a glass out of the cabinet and continued toward the fridge and his felt on edge again- his hair standing on end. In the kitchen, the 'junk drawer' was slightly open. Grabbing a quick sip of water from the faucet and leaving the glass in the sink, he moved out of the kitchen toward the hallway.

Taking a quick peek into the office, he noted nothing out of place - for once.

Heading toward the stairs, he noticed the second thing that was amiss- the door to the basement wasn't closed all the way. It was always closed; with a toddler, it was mandatory. This led him up the stairs and to the first door on the right; to the usual culprit on forgetting to close the door.

There, fast asleep, face mashed against the bed rails, was his oldest child. Hair tousled, blankets all at the bottom of the bed, animals and books littering the bed. Along with a hammer, nails and a little bottle of super glue.

Wait - glue, nails, and hammer? Oh my!

Jack raised an eyebrow and walked into the room. Looking around the room for what the super glue was for, he noticed two strings tied to the bedpost. Walking over to the bed post, he decided to pull on one of the strings but nothing happened.  
>"Hmmm." He grabbed the other string and pulled it, the result was the over head lights coming on. Quickly, he pulled the other one again and the lights went off.<p>

Smirking, he followed the string to see how she had done it; across the wall, jump to the corner, over the book shelf, split one up, one down, one foot over then meet in the middle at the light switch, which looked like it had more knotted string and glue than a light switch should ever have. He was pretty sure that her little brother would be really mad tomorrow to find that his beloved Thomas Train set was being used to guide the string across the wall.

Jack shook his head. He would definitely have to deal with this in the morning. Repositioning sleeping beauty in the center of the bed and replacing the blanket, he gave her a kiss good night and then whispered in her ear, "You are in trouble, young lady." He picked up the glue, hammer and nails as he walked out of the room.

As he walked down the hall, he checked on the other room - one innocent son asleep in his bed - before walking into the master bedroom to see his beautiful wife dead to the world.

The great Samantha Carter O'Neill, Champion of the All-Nighters, was conked out. She would never admit it, but this last pregnancy had taken its toll and she was having a hard time recuperating. Heck, if you had told him seven years ago he would have three kids, he would have laughed and called you crazy. Now after their "menopause baby," he was sure Sam was done, even if they could have more; she was _DONE_. Heck, she slept through their daughter creating an extend-a-light switch in her room.

Placing the contraband on his dresser, he heard their youngest make noise from the 'rock and play' contraption Sam said they had to have. Sam's hand flew gracefully to the cradle and rocked it till the little whimpers were gone.

Walking into the bathroom, he kicked off his shoes and threw them into the master closet before discarding his clothes into the dirty hamper. After quickly brushing his teeth, he made his way to his side of the bed.

"She is more like you every day." Jack said into the dark.

"What did she do this time?" A very tired Sam muffled from the bed.

"Built herself a long range light switch." Jack smirked again as he got into bed. Yep, just like her mother.


	4. Geronimo!

Thank you Wendy!

This is the last one I have written so far for this group of stories...nothing says I can't think of more to add later for for now this is done:p

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><p>"Hey Cass," Sam said as she walked into the living room. "How did everything go?"<p>

Cassie looked from the back deck toward Sam, "Everything went well." Sam could see where Aubrey, Sam and Jack's eldest, was sitting doing what Sam could only assume was homework on the back deck. "Matthew and Josh are taking a 'quiet time'."

"How long they been down?" Sam asked, looking at her watch. Sam knew there was a good chance that Matthew was asleep. He had to be one of the few 7 year olds that actually still took a nap daily. On the other hand, she doubted Josh was asleep at all. Sam had long given up the idea that her bundle of energy, 3-year old, was actually taking a nap. Most likely she needed to go rescue the room.

"Almost an hour." Cassie answered. "I was about to go check on them again."

"We can do it together." Sam said as she looked out to make sure Aubrey was still doing her homework. Cassie stood up and made her way up the stairs and down the hall behind Sam. Opening the first door on the right, Sam wasn't surprised to see Matthew still asleep. As she made her way down the hall to the second door, she mentally noted that she needed to wake Matthew up in an hour. Opening the door, she was shocked to see Josh was nowhere to be seen. "Cassie, when was the last time you checked on them?"

The young woman was just as shocked as Sam not to see the wired 3-year old in his bedroom. "Um, when I went to the bathroom, about 20 minutes ago." She replied. "Oh gosh, I should have checked-"

"You didn't know he figured out his door handle." Sam cut her off. Turning around on her heals, she headed back down the steps towards Aubrey. Josh loved Aubrey, so most likely he was with her.

Opening the door to the back yard, she saw her eldest standing in the corner of the deck talking to someone.

"Now Josh, remember you have to jump," Aubrey stated as Sam immediately started to frantically search the backyard for where Josh would be jumping from. Aubrey then added, "at the agreed upon trajectory."

Not easily spotting him at any of his usual jumping spots, Sam _calmly_ asked Aubrey "Where is Josh?"

"Geronimo!" A little voice yelled. Sam and Cassie watched in horror as Josh jumped out of the tree house toward the trampoline that had apparently been moved for this stunt.

"Josh!" Sam and Cassie yelled in unison as Sam immediately ran down the steps toward the hated trampoline that Jack insisted they needed so that Josh could 'bounce' his extra energy out. Keeping her eyes on him she witnessed him bounce then do three flips in the air, then bounce again and another two flips but his next bounce was just that and then a few more before Sam stood in front of the trampoline.

"Did you see me mom? Did you see me!" The little boy said in excitement as he jumped off the trampoline into Sam's awaiting arms. Sam hugged him so hard, so happy that he was thankfully okay.

"Josh, you didn't do the last flip!" Aubrey said from the deck. "I told you…"

"Audrey and Josh, both inside right now!" Sam said with authority, cutting Aubrey off- fully remembering that, yes, he was okay, but this needed to be nipped in the bud.

Both kids walked solemnly back toward the house. Sam stood there a moment as she watched Cassie follow them inside. "The first two may be all me, but Josh is 100% Jack O'Neill." She said as she walked back towards the house.


End file.
